


There's A Joke Here About Gay People In Closets

by mahalidael



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst, Claustrophobia, Dehydration, Flashbacks, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, Panic Attacks, Vomiting, just a little but content warning just in case, luke is mentioned for like 2 seconds, nico has a flashback and will has to help him, the stolls didn't trigger him intentionally they just didn't know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-22
Updated: 2018-06-22
Packaged: 2019-05-26 22:52:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15011174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mahalidael/pseuds/mahalidael
Summary: ...but it doesn't seem so funny right now.The Stolls lock Nico in a dark closet because why not. The experience reminds Nico of that other time he was trapped in a small space while two brothers laughed at him. Shit gets a little too real and the Stolls get some doctorly help.





	There's A Joke Here About Gay People In Closets

Nico didn't even realize he had a problem until the Stolls decided locking him in a closet would be hilarious.

It happened maybe a month after the end of the Giant War. The Stolls had been subtly getting on his nerves for a while now. They were testing his limit for tomfoolery before launching an actual prank, because while they were irritating as hell they weren't stupid. If they pissed him off, their asses would've been kicked so hard Hermes himself would feel it.

But Nico's threshold of tolerance was pretty high thus far. Sometimes they tied his shoelaces together or put a whoopee cushion on his chair, and he just sighed.

Nico was an enigma to other campers and he did nothing to clear that up. After the Titan War he disappeared and came back with some fresh scars and a cheesy Hawaiian shirt.

Will was let in on the causes of his injuries. That was strictly a need-to-know basis, though.

Other than that, the bulk of camp didn't know what happened, and Nico was okay with that. The less people knew, the better.

Right?

* * *

Nico was cleaning all the cabin windows today, so early in the morning he went into a supply closet for some cleaning fluid and heard the door slam behind him.

At first, he was exasperated. "Connor, open the door." He heard the jingle of keys and the deadbolt clunking into place. The Stolls giggled faintly. "You two are idiots."

Nico sighed and sat down on the floor. Eventually they would get tired of this and let him out.

No shadow travel, doctor's orders.

Nico swallowed hard. It would help if the lights were on but when he felt for a switch there was none. It was on the outside. "Guys. Turn on the lights."

They laughed some more.

He broke into a cold sweat. Nico walked to the absolute center of the closet. He put his arms out to either side and found that his palms could touch the walls without fully extending either arm. Was it getting hot in here? He pressed his hands against the walls harder, trying to will the closet to get bigger. "Come on. Turn on the lights! It's not funny," he demanded, knocking on the door.

Travis teased him. "Come on, di Angelo, it's just a little darkness! Don't tell me you're afraid of the dark!"

"Holy shit, you're kidding me!" Connor snickered.

"I'm not!" Nico forced out.

It was so, so, so hot. He was trying to open his jacket but his hands were shaking too bad to grasp the zipper. He sat down to get some relief and found himself pressed against a wall, and a wall, and  _the closet's getting smaller, why is it getting smaller._

Nico hugged himself, trying to keep his guts in his body as his stomach threw itself against his skin, crying for food. He pressed his cheek against the wall, tried to stretch his aching legs but there wasn't enough room to do so. Laughing, laughing, laughing, so loud, like he was an animal in a cage. His tongue was glued to the roof of his mouth but somehow there was still enough water inside him for his eyes to be damp.

Nico hid his face in his hands. "Can't breathe," he croaked miserably, but nobody came to help, nobody nobody nobody.

He couldn't let himself cry, because when he cried it was noisy and if they heard they'd just mock him more.

The laughter became uneasy. "Uh, Nico? You okay, dude?"

This was a trick. They just wanted an excuse to hurt him. His breath hitched.

"Nico! You're really quiet in there. Please tell me if you're jerking off, 'cause I don't wanna open the door and subject my baby brother to that."

"...Travis, I don't think he's jerking off." There was a disconnect between what was actually being said and what Nico was hearing, but he didn't notice.

"I'm gonna open this door, Nico."

There was a creaking sound and a rush of fresh air but - but there were two figures casting a shadow on him, hands reaching for him. "No! No more!" he begged.

He threw himself to the ground to shield his face. They recoiled. "Mother of Hera! Nico, it's just - it's Travis and Connor. Don't you recognize us?"

Nico couldn't recognize anything. He felt a hand touch his arm and shrieked.

"Uh... Travis, what do we do?"

"...Go get Will Solace, he's a doctor. He knows how to calm people down. I'll watch him."

Nico curled into a ball and sobbed for breath. Even though they hadn't laid their grubby hands on him yet he already felt as though he was being strangled, a crushing pressure around his throat. "P-please, no..." Hands everywhere, pulling his hair, squeezing him, poking and prodding him like he was a doll. A massive fingertip, scaled for a twelve-foot-tall man was pressed against his lips, as two arms held him forcefully around the belly, and they told him to lick. Every time he refused the one restraining him squeezed harder, until he was vomiting bile, weeping from humiliation, licking the giant's dirty finger like a kitten as they laughed. They stuffed him back in the bronze jar, hurt and filthy.

"Shhh, Nico. Buddy."

"Don't touch him, we touched him and he screamed."

"Hey, Nico, it's Will, it's just me, I have some water for you." Nico whimpered loudly. He didn't care if it was a trick, he needed water so bad. "Come here, Neeks. Sit up."

Nico felt a hand - a gentle hand, not like a giant's hand - spread on his upper back and push him to an upright position. The mouth of a water bottle was placed at his lips, and he drank greedily, water dripping down his chin and onto his shirt. "Th-thank you," he mewled weakly, resting his head against the stranger's chest.

The stranger held him there for a while, warm and gentle, some respite from everything he'd been through. Eventually, Nico stopped crying, rubbing his face against his flannel shirt and realizing, oh, it's Will. Oh. Oh, he's - this is camp.

The Big House was always too cold, and the sweat he was drenched in didn't help matters. Nico looked up at Will's freckles. "Hey, Will."

"Hey. You know where you are?"

"Lying on the dirty floor in the supply closet." Nico sighed. "Mmm... that's almost funny. Me and closets."

Will caressed his hair. They'd only been dating for a few weeks, but Nico was well aware that Will touching his hair felt fucking great, like warm sunshine. "Do you want to go back to your cabin?"

"I have window cleaning duty."

"I'll write you a doctor's note. You need to rest." Will slid an arm under Nico's knees. "Is it okay for me to pick you up?"

"Mm-hm."

Will stood up, making Nico sag in his arms. Fortunately, Will was holding Nico bridal style, putting him in no danger of flashing back again. Nico let his head fall back. "Whoa. Are you still with me, Neeks?" Nico nodded.

Nico let Will carry him back to his cabin. Will shifted him around in his arms before laying him down on the mattress.

Will walked into the bathroom and turned on the tap. When he returned, Nico was lying in bed looking scared and a little bit sickened. "What's wrong?"

Nico gulped. "I thought I was okay. I just got comfortable with the idea of settling down at camp, and now I go and do this. Everyone's going to know I'm messed up."

"Baby, you're going too fast. It's been a month. You were held hostage and tortured. It takes _years_ for people to recover from that. In fact, if you _were_ okay by now, I'd be worried. You know why?"

"Why?"

"Luke Castellan. Thalia was turned into a tree ten years ago, when I was too young to understand what was going on. But I remember Annabeth was so broken up about it, and Luke... he just trained himself into the ground. He was crying when he got to camp, but that was it. He just dried up. And, well, you know how that turned out."

Nico stared at the ceiling. "Was comparing my traumas to the guy who killed a shitload of people supposed to make me feel better?"

"Alright, maybe that was a little indelicate. But the point is that your problems, your responses are totally natural, and anyone who  _wouldn't_ be stressed after what you've been through would have to be nuts." Will patted Nico's hand. "I'm running a bath. You want a bath?"

Nico's mind had dragged itself out of the jar, but it was still vulnerable to falling right back in. Sitting in a tub of water, the thing he'd been deprived of for so long, would be therapeutic. "That sounds nice."

Will frowned. "How did it happen, anyway?"

"Um." Nico shook his head. "I went in the closet to get some Windex, and the Stolls locked the door behind me. It was a dumb prank, I didn't mean to freak out. I guess being trapped set me off. And it's scary, now that I really think of it, because I didn't even realize what was going on until it was all over. That memory just... became everything. The, um, water seemed to bring me back, though."

By the time he was done talking, Nico felt near tears again. He was used to not talking about it that the discussion itself made his jaw tighten with fear. Concerned, Will cocked his head. "Are you okay?"

"Better than I was. Still pretty terrible," he admitted.

"Can I do something about that?"

Nico glanced sheepishly to the side and stuck out his arms. "Hold me?"

Will gladly obliged.

**Author's Note:**

> and that's where i ran outta steam babey!! thank u goodnight


End file.
